Channel



J. s. REID Jul 24, 1934.

CHANNEL Original Filed Feb. 19, 1932 a! V. H4O mm. H m fll 5 7 m 0. Y B J i 14 Patented July 24, 1934 UNITED STATES PATENT? OFFICE 1,901,814 1 CHANNEL James S. Reid, Shaker Heights, Ohio, assignor to The Reid Products Company, Cleveland, Ohio,

a. corporation of Ohio 3 Claims. (01. ass-44.5)

The invention disclosed in this application relates to window structures for vehicles and has particular reference to the glass run channel arrangement, the present application being a division of my copending application for Channels, application Ser. No. 594,040, filed February 19, 1932.

One object of the invention is to produce a window structure for sliding glass panes where one or both of the upper corners of the window opening are curved, or other than right angled, and to arrange a glass run channel in the window groove thereof so that the exposed edges of the chaimel are continuous with the curved edges of the windowopening throughout the side and top without interfering with free movement of the square corners of the window pane up into the curve at the comers.

Another object of the invention is to provide a channel core of skeleton type wherein a blank of spring-like material, such as spring steel ,or the like, is punched out or slotted to provide spaced longitudinal straps, each near but within the edge of the strip, and the two straps being connected by transverse diagonally disposed portions which join along the median line and are adapted to form transverse U-shaped strips when the core is fabricated into U-shaped channel. Outwardly beyond the longitudinal straps diagonally extending spaced tongues are provided, each being located opposite the end of one of the transverse strips. When a blank is formed in this way a substantially iJ-shaped channel structure made up of transverse straps is provided and the longitudinal straps may berolled over into open round beads with the tongues extending inward and downward towards the base of the channel to form cores for lip pads. In this way the U- shaped channel structure fits the window groove, the open beads extending above the edge to mask the lip pads and the lugs receive lip pads which engage the glass. By this construction the lip pads are yielding and the-beads augment this yielding characteristic.

Another feature of the invention is the modification of the skeleton core blank just described by forming a multiplicity of W-shaped transverse core strips, each including short straight portions corresponding to the position of the aforesaid longitudinal straps and located within but near the ends of the W-shaped cross strips and spaced apart by diagonally extending V- shaped portions meeting at the median line and outer end tongue portions extending diagonally and adapted to form the lip pad core; These transverse strips are ganged in spaced relation with respect to each other, and to the straight portions thereof are secured. as by spot weldin longitudinal straps. which ultimately form the rolled finishing beads or strips.

Other featuresof the invention will be obvious from the following description, drawing and claims. Referring to the drawing, Fig. 1 is a side elevation of the upper portion of a window having curved upper corners at the window opening; Fig. 2 is a sectional perspective view of a portion of an upper corner, with the section taken upon the line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a plan view of one form of core blank; and Fig. 4 is a modified form 70.

of the blank.

In the embodiment shown in Fig. 1, 1 and 2 represent the two vertical sides of the window frame connected by an upper horizontal member 3. These members are channeled out to form a ll window groove, generally indicated at 4. This "groove is continuous throughout the sides and the top. It also extends down into the lower portion of the door below the window opening so that the glass may slide therein. The grooves 30 at the sides form the runway for the glass pane d'which is rectangular, as shown, with parallel side edges and a horizontal upper edge, the corners being right angled, The glass is wide enough so that it extends into the window grooves, at, as shown, and iteinay be raised so that it extends into that portion of the window groove in the upper member 3. The construction of the door and window just described is very prevalent in automobile designs at the present time and one so feature of the present invention is the adaptation of glass run channel to the window grooves of a window of this type so that said channel may be bent around the corners with the finishing stri or beads of the channel exposed uniformly and as continuously along the outer edges of both sides 'onally disposed lip pad tongues or lugs 9 spaced apart and extending diagonally, as do the slots 6. By the provision of these lugs and the inner transversestrips formed by the slots 6, a core is provided including spaced longitudinally disposed parallel straps connected to each other by diagonally disposed transverse strip portions spaced apart and meeting at the median line. These strips form the sides a and base b of the formed channel; The longitudinal straps 8 are bent into the open beads, indicated at c, while the lugs 9 form the inwardly and downwardly extending cores d carrying the lip pads, as will relation, as shown in Fig. 4, and are secured together by. separate longitudinal straps 13 spot Welded or otherwise secured, as at 14, to each of the straight portions 10. This form of core is fabricated to channel form in the same manner as that shown in Fig. 3, by shaping it so that the inner diagonal portions 11 form the base 22 and the side flanges a, with the longitudinal straps 13 forming the open finishing beads c,

and the lugs12 forming the lip pad cores d.

The core in flat form, in either of the forms shown in Figs. 3 and 4, is passed through any suitable form of rubber extruding machine and is thereby provided with a continuous coating of rubber or any suitable like material extending over the entire core. In other words, this rubber coating is continuous over both surfaces and around the edges of the fiat strip and of course it extends through all slots and openings so as to bind the coating on each surface to that on the other surface. Next, the edges or lip portions are enclosed with a layer of surface material, such as felt or the like, as indicated at 17, such material being firmly bound to the body by the adhesive characteristics of the rubber coating. Either before or after application oi this felt layer, the rubber coating is removed from both surfaces of the longitudinal continuous strap portions 8 in Fig. 3 and 10, 13 in Fig. 4.

Thereupon, the coated strip is passed through a suitable forming machine and is bent up into the cross sectional form shown in Fig. 2. This operation forms the uncoated longitudinal straps into rolled beads c, the transverse strip portions into the sides and bottom of the channel and the These strips are more or less of .W-form and they are laid in spaced edge portions or tongues 12 into the glass engaging lip pad members, so that the channel as a whole can be introduced into the window groove for guiding the glass therein.

Inasmuch as the base and side flanges of the channel are iormedby the V-shaped transverse strips, they provide a herring-bone construction with the central points, indicated at 7, Fig. 3, extending longitudinally and with the lip pad core lugs extending in the same direction so that when the channel is complete it may be freely bent around curves such as are shown at the upper lefthand corner of the window illustrated in Fig. 1. When the channel is so bent, the lip pad core lugs and the transverse strips spread to permit such an arrangement; at the same time the finishing beads c nest along the edges of the window grooves and are forced tightly thereagainst by the tension on the lip pads when the glass is in place.

In order to provide for the square corners of the glass at the rounded corners of the window opening, the base of the channelis cut away, as at 18, to permit theprojecting glass corner to extend therethrough. In this way the glass may be moved up to its ultimate upper position and yet the glass run channel may be laid or applied in its proper position at the edges of the window opening. i

What I claim is:

1. A core for glass run channel, comprising a pair of open beads, a plurality of spaced U-shaped strips connecting the outer edges of said beads, a plurality of inwardly and downwardly extending spaced lugs carried by the inner edge of each bead to provide a core for a lip pad, the spaces tending angularly with respect to each other, and a one-piece channel shaped intermediate portion integral with said angularly disposed portions, said intermediate portion providing a corner of a window opening- JAMES S. REID. 

